Thank you all for the wonderful help! I am glad I was encouraged to go pick up clay. I just got back from a mini road trip and picked up some low HIgh fire clay as suggested in this thread. I also got to see the glaze samples in person and was able to select based on first hand rather than an internet picture! I found the absolute MOST gorgeous blue hf glaze!!! It looks like a royal- cobolt brilliant blue! (they mix it themselves at the clay warehouse). I seriously cannot wait to get my hands in some clay again and make it properly this time!!!

~ Namaste ~

Home studio potter

Shanel Pottery

www.shanelpottery.com

www.facebook.com/shanelspottery

"To me the greatest thing is to live beauty in our daily life and to crowd every moment with things of beauty. It is then, and then only that the art of the people as a whole is endowed with it's richest significance. For it's products are those made by great a many craftsmen for the mass of the people, and the moment this art declines the life of the nation is removed far away from beauty. So long as beauty abides in only in a few articles created by a few geniuses, the kingdom of beauty is nowhere near realization." - Bernard Leach

Don't break them, put 'em in your garden. And if you do break them, put 'em in your garden anyway! Oh, and I think that when it comes to electric kiln fired pottery, red clays look better than white clays (if you haven't bought any yet).

Don't break them, put 'em in your garden. And if you do break them, put 'em in your garden anyway! Oh, and I think that when it comes to electric kiln fired pottery, red clays look better than white clays (if you haven't bought any yet).

Joel.

Some red clays (like Lizella) do look great in electric firings but so do whites. Whites usually look better in electric firing than they do in reduction firing because they are brighter and whiter than the grayish white you usually get in reduction. Also, since you plan to write on your pots, white would be the better choice.

Hi- I am new to pottery. I got a kick wheel on mothers day 2012, and I am firing my kiln for the first time. It's a small paragon from the 60's. I have it packed closely but not stacked. I am using basic store purchased earthenware clay and attempted to do my first bisque firing using a cone 4 in the lever. (sorry, not experience enough to get technical) I had it warm up on low for an hr with the top proped open 2 inches. (mind you, it's 10 degrees here, the kiln is in my garage with the door open) I had it closed for an hr, and then turned it up to "med" for 1 hr. Then I put it on high. I started the entire process at 10:45am today and the cone shut off the kiln at 5:20pm. That seems awefully fast for what I was expecting. It's only nearly 7 hrs..

Does this mean I did something wrong? Do you think I will be able to open it up in the morning or is that too soon to check what happened? I don't want to shock the pots with the cold air too quickly. How will I know if I didn't do it long enough?

Thanks! <3

Rebbylicious, You are clearly eager to learn, and this forum is the place to do it. When you have spare moments, go to the forums and just start reading. I am not a functional potter, and I don't understand a great deal of the more technical stuff, but most days I read everything that has been written in the "studio" and "technical" forums since my last visit. When I started visiting this forum, I had zero interest in using glazes or in making functional ware, but just the act of reading the fascinating conversations has made me wish that I were 25 years younger so that I had time to walk the extraordinary paths of learning that these folks have walked and continue to walk every day.

Don't break them, put 'em in your garden. And if you do break them, put 'em in your garden anyway! Oh, and I think that when it comes to electric kiln fired pottery, red clays look better than white clays (if you haven't bought any yet).

Joel.

Some red clays (like Lizella) do look great in electric firings but so do whites. Whites usually look better in electric firing than they do in reduction firing because they are brighter and whiter than the grayish white you usually get in reduction. Also, since you plan to write on your pots, white would be the better choice.

Jim

It seems to me that when newer potters use white clay their work suffers. I may well be wrong. I don't particularly care for white clays in general, reduction or oxydation, but some glazes do look better on them. I guess its that point where the glaze and the clay meet that bothers me. The starkness makes the foot stand out and is distracting. I try to make the bottom parts of my work blend into or yield to the surface upon which they rest. It's hard to blend white into wood. You've been doing this a lot longer than I, however, so you are likely drawing on experiences I don't posses.

Don't break them, put 'em in your garden. And if you do break them, put 'em in your garden anyway! Oh, and I think that when it comes to electric kiln fired pottery, red clays look better than white clays (if you haven't bought any yet).

Joel.

Some red clays (like Lizella) do look great in electric firings but so do whites. Whites usually look better in electric firing than they do in reduction firing because they are brighter and whiter than the grayish white you usually get in reduction. Also, since you plan to write on your pots, white would be the better choice.

Jim

It seems to me that when newer potters use white clay their work suffers. I may well be wrong. I don't particularly care for white clays in general, reduction or oxydation, but some glazes do look better on them. I guess its that point where the glaze and the clay meet that bothers me. The starkness makes the foot stand out and is distracting. I try to make the bottom parts of my work blend into or yield to the surface upon which they rest. It's hard to blend white into wood. You've been doing this a lot longer than I, however, so you are likely drawing on experiences I don't posses.

Joel.

I agree with you but it seems important to her to write and draw on the pots and that made me think white clay would work better but, of course, you can do that on dark clay, too, and sgraffido (sp?) would work best on dark clay.

I spent hours watching youtube videos from this guy from tiwan who seems to me an excellent teacher... and following his advice this morning I feel like such a rock star today! Rather than letting the clay dictate what I make, I was able to dictate the clay. Do you notice getting sore from applying pressure and centering or am I doing it wrong and using the wrong muscles?

~ Namaste ~

Home studio potter

Shanel Pottery

www.shanelpottery.com

www.facebook.com/shanelspottery

"To me the greatest thing is to live beauty in our daily life and to crowd every moment with things of beauty. It is then, and then only that the art of the people as a whole is endowed with it's richest significance. For it's products are those made by great a many craftsmen for the mass of the people, and the moment this art declines the life of the nation is removed far away from beauty. So long as beauty abides in only in a few articles created by a few geniuses, the kingdom of beauty is nowhere near realization." - Bernard Leach

It will take a while for your muscles to get used to using them. You just need to keep playing and trying new things and it will come around. I'm a visual learner, I can read a book multiple times and may never get what their talking about. But, when I watch someone I understand immediately. There is no one around me that does pottery, my brother does, but he's 600 miles away and talking to him on the phone is like reading a book. I've learned more from Youtube than anywhere else. I subscribe to Simon Leach and youdanxxx so I know when they upload new videos. There's a lot of good info there so just watch and learn.

One of the reasons I like the idea of doing some low fire clays too is that I want to be able to paint on designs to my pots. I want to be able to write words etc. (it's a long story etc, goes along with studies of positive words impacting water molicules etc, etc) I love the color play that stoneware glazes offer, but I need to be able to do detailed designs as well. I am also HIGHLY inspired by polish pottery designs and would love to make "polish design inspired" That is why I was talking about using 2 kinds of clay (not at the same time of course). Is there a happy medium out there?

Ooh! You should look into using underglazes. Amaco Velvet Underglazes are stable up to cone 10 for most colors, and they are not only super easy to use but come in a variety of colors that you can blend as desired. So you can use them on low-fired or high-fired clay; just cover them with a zinc-free clear.

One of the reasons I like the idea of doing some low fire clays too is that I want to be able to paint on designs to my pots. I want to be able to write words etc. (it's a long story etc, goes along with studies of positive words impacting water molicules etc, etc) I love the color play that stoneware glazes offer, but I need to be able to do detailed designs as well. I am also HIGHLY inspired by polish pottery designs and would love to make "polish design inspired" That is why I was talking about using 2 kinds of clay (not at the same time of course). Is there a happy medium out there?

Ooh! You should look into using underglazes. Amaco Velvet Underglazes are stable up to cone 10 for most colors, and they are not only super easy to use but come in a variety of colors that you can blend as desired. So you can use them on low-fired or high-fired clay; just cover them with a zinc-free clear.

Speedball underglazes hold color even better in my experience, and are usually cheaper, too.

Speedball underglazes hold color even better in my experience, and are usually cheaper, too.

Fair point about the price - I haven't tried Speedball underglazes because where I usually buy my pottery supplies doesn't carry them. Can you blend them to create new colors, like the Amaco Velvets? What about mixing Speedball and Amaco brands?

Not sure about mixing brands. You'd have to test that. In my experience you can mix colors, like with all underglazes, but underglazes do not behave like paints. Generally speaking, you can tint colors, but actual color theory doesn't necessarily apply.